Services

24/7 Chat Cooperative

Our affordable 24/7 Chat Co-op ensures your patrons have around-the-clock access to expert MLS-degreed librarians

Our MLIS-degreed librarians deliver round-the-clock online chat coverage to hundreds of member libraries around the world. With millions of answered chats and countless satisfied patrons, the co-op provides expert help to your community. Our flexible service model is tailored for each customer so your online visitors can always have a librarian available to assist with their research and information needs.
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Ensure your users have 24/7 Access to Expert Librarians

Your Virtual Reference Service Desk - Always Open

Cascading Fallback Widgets

Control how and when a chat cascades from in-library chatbots or chat departments to the Cooperative so patrons get help even when you're offline or busy.

Custom Coverage Hours

Not every library is in need of 24/7/365 coverage. You pick which days and hours you'd like coverage with flexible pricing.

Participation Options

Choose to contribute to the global co-op or form a local chat co-op with a group of libraries - or just get backup coverage, no participation required.

24/7 Staffing FAQ Group

Create unique FAQs with your hours of operation, links to databases and catalogs, shortcuts to LibGuides, and more so global librarians can best serve your patrons.

Post-Chat Follow-Up

Automatically create a ticket in your library's LibAnswers system so you can follow-up with your patrons after their 24/7 chat experience.

Rigorous Quality Control

Springshare has a rigorous quality control process to ensure all chats receive the highest quality of answers.

The Largest And Most Active Librarian Cooperative

Millions of Answered Questions

Many hundreds of libraries have used the Cooperative services over the years. Our Co-op librarians have responded to millions of reference chats that would have otherwise gone unanswered.
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600

Participating Libraries

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6M+

Answered Chats

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1500

Participating Librarians

The service that's tailored to your situation

Flexible Service Models To Fit Your Needs and Requirements

Local Contribution to Co-op

If your staff can contribute a few hours per week to the cooperative staffing, we provide discounted price for your annual co-op service license.

No Contribution to Co-op

We understand that some libraries do not have any additional staff time to contribute to the co-op staffing, and that is okay. We will still ensure your chat queues are covered 24/7/365.

Flexible yet fully featured cooperative

Cooperative Features That Make Your Life Easier

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Global & Local Cooperatives

We operate three global chat cooperatives - Academic, Public, & En Español - so your patrons will always receive targeted support. A group of libraries (e.g. consortia) can form their own local cooperative. In a local co-op, you get first dibs at answering each other's patrons' questions before they fall back to the 24/7 Global Cooperative.

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Chat Statistics for Your Users

Review all cooperative-answered chats and provide ratings and feedback to the answering library for in-house improvement. View a breakdown of chat traffic, check average wait times and how many tickets were created, see how patrons rated the service they received, and more. The system provides actionable, in-depth statistics.

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YOUR LIBRARIANS' CO-OP ACTIVITY

Visit the Cooperative Dashboard to view your activity, co-op admins, member institutions, and other co-op librarians. If your library decides to contribute staffing to the cooperative, you can review your institution's schedules, top answerers, chat ratings, a breakdown of your chat cooperative activity, and other useful statistics.

Springshare's 24/7 Co-op ensures your patrons have access to MLS-degreed librarians anytime. We'd love to demonstrate how it can help your library's virtual reference service.

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